Congregations That Bloom

Description

This DVD offers a wide array of multi-generational opportunity in any congregation, across the denominations and across diverse interfaith communities.

Congregations That Bloom is narrated by Caroline Fairless and Jim Sims, but the richness of it evolves from congregations willing to embrace more authentic ways of “being Church.”

It’s divided into seven segments, each segment carrying the theological rationale for movement in the direction of multi-generational worshipping communities.

The first segment, appropriately named A New Beginning and the one that follows, about the Rite of Baptism, speak to the longing that so many of us experience against the tide of spiritual isolation. They offer the narrative of authenticity, in voices many and diverse. The third segment – A Sense of Urgency – speaks to exactly that; why is it of critical importance at this time. that we move toward this vision of a table to which everyone – not just in theory – is invited?

Given the current reality that we as a culture are in danger of losing (if we have not already lost) the power of the biblical narrative, both Hebrew and Christian, the core of this DVD focuses on the telling of the sacred story, in song, dramatic reading, dance, first person narrative – always including the gifts of the community which transcend the generational divide.

In a humorous vein, with the direct words of members of congregations, the segment The Sounds of our Own Voices allows us to claim our own stubbornness and resistance to change.

In the segment Prayer and Confession, we who are watching this DVD get a real sense of what it could mean if the Prayers and Confession of the People were, in fact, the prayers and confessions of real people in real congregations. Through the imaginative use of “prayer cards” how might we as communities of faith carry our own prayers?

Finally, the DVD explores – again through anecdotal narrative of congregations – the inviolate necessity of liturgical art, the art of the people themselves. What could that look like? How do young people and adult people understand the power of liturgical art, particularly their own?